Deadly Housewares

This joint post brought to you by the
rambling minds of "Becca and Sean"
Total BS.
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Who: Rufus, Trisees
where: Science Labs
When: Pass
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-- -- Previously -- --
"I guess you're right, but i'm not that smart really." He picked
up a petri dish and gave a wry smile. "Not everything is broken I
see."
Trisees smiled knowingly and said nothing, turning on his heel and
nodding as Rufus began finding small un broken pieces of equipment.
Rufus glanced over at Trisees, who had picked up an untouched
mircroscope, and then grinned.
-- -- Continuing -- --
Rufus layed out the unbroken equiptment on a no so badly damaged
bench and looked it over.
"Do you think we have enough here to analyse this stuff?" He asked
the older scientist.
Trisees scanned the equipment with thinned and searching eyes.
They'd picked up a lot of things, mostly just bits and pieces that,
should they be in luck, could splice together to form rudimentary
temporary equipment. It was no lie to say they'd have less that
decent results, if they got any at all. But they couldn't give up.
They had to find out some way of attacking these bugs. If they
could find a weak spot then perhaps they could find a way to cleanse
the Blue Dwarf, which would leave it empty and safe for everyone to
come back on board. Then perhaps they could carry on with the
mission.
Trisees looked over as Rufus picked through the wreckage and gave a
half grin. It was a nice feeling having someone to share science
with again. It'd been a long time since he'd truly worked with
somebody. Somebody with as much potential and brainpower as Rufus
seemed to display.
Rufus had a brainwave.
"I've just remembered, the bugs are intolerant to alcohol. It kills
them, we don't have any onboard though, the pirates stole it all.
I'm sure if that helps at all but..... yeah." He said, thinking how
to kill the bugs en masse.
Trisees head snapped round quickly to look at Rufus.
"Alcohol?" he said, his mind beginning to work feverently.
"Alcohol. Alcohol." he repeated the work again and again in his
mouth, Rufus thinking as though Trisees might be a broken record.
"Alcohol," he said again. "Aha! I've got it! I know what we can
do. Do you suppose the cargo decks or the food storage units were
cleaned out? Or do you suppose the pirates left anything?" he asked.
"They may have left some things. I mean, they didn't look the sort
to try home breing or anything." Rufus said, not totally sure where
Trisees was going with this. "If you are hungry i'm sure i've got a
chocolte bar somewhere...." He said looking in his pockets.
"You eat that, keep your energy up. Meanwhile, we have to get
ourselves to one of the cargo bays. Perhaps we should try the food
storage units first. What we need, is some bread!" Replied Trisees.
"Bread?" queried Rufus. "You're the genius around here. I have no
idea how to get to the cargo bays from here" He said.
Trisees nodded. "Yes, bread," he said. He leant back against the
bench and started musing. "Rufus, do you remember what bread is
made from?"
Rufus thought for a moment.
"Baking is Mum's thing really, but if I remember correctly isn't it
flour and yeast" He spoke tentativly, nnot wanting to be wrong.
Trisees smiled widely. "Yes, yeast is correct." He continued.
"Alcohol is made from the by-products of yeast fermenting into
bread. So what we need to do, is find some bread, make the yeast in
it respire, collect the alcoholic by products, and bingo! we have
our weapon!"
"I see!" He said nodding, the penny finally dropping. "You up for
another ramble out there?" He pointed towards the doors behind him
and scowled at the thought of more bugs.
"Count me in," he said, nodding. "Though, perhaps, if lucky, we
could find some way of modifying any of these pieces into weapons of
some kind. I've put together spaceship engines from bits of old
hairdryer's before. There's bound to be something here we could
use."
"This is the science bay. It was my dad's old haunt. That is a
foolish thing to say. There should be plenty to make weapons from."
He grinned manically and picked up a gun barel to demonstrate his
point.
Trisees caught him self off guard by laughing with Rufus. He was
really beginning to like the boy. He could see good things for him
in future - he didn't know how, he just knew the boy was destined
for greatness. Trisees nodded and picked up a gun stock and
agreed.
"Lets get to work, those bugs won't kill themselves. We have
weapons to make. The exterminators are in town."
* *
Rufus peered around the corner to be faced with another long
strech of emptiness.
"Whats going on? I haven't seen any Bugs for ages." He said,
putting the saftey on the oddly crafted weapon.
Trisees peered along a branched out corridor doubling back the way
they'd come, it too empty, and he guessed silent.
"I don't know," he said quietly. "But I have an idea, and it's not
a good one."
"What?" asked Rufus, partially wishing he hadn't.
"Well, there's the small possibility its an ambush, and we're going
to run into a few thousand bugs around a corner up ahead."
Rufus gulped.
"So is there another way to the Cargo bays, or are we smegged?" He
saidshifting the bag of equiptment on his back. He had packed all of
the usefull stuff safely away so that they didn't have to walk back
to the science bay. Trisees looked down at his makeshift lasergun.
It wasn't as powerful as a proper gun, but it would easily make its
way through anything caught in the way of its beam after a few pulls
of the trigger.
"Well, according to my mental map, there are three ways to reach
the cargo lift from where we are. There's the way we're going now,
with about three expanses and many small corridors. There's a
nearby collection of ducts and shafts, accessible from a small
cupboard store room about four corridors from here. There's also
the lifts, but they're about fifty corridors away and they go
through some of our most used areas, including the promenade."
"Its simply a choice of working out which way gives us most survival
chance," he said.
"I know which i'd pick, but i'm not sure you'd like it. The ducts
seem like the best choise unles you want to run the risk of ambush."
He said, taking the saftey off the gun and checking the sights.
Trisees thought.
"The ducts seem like a good choice, even with one arm, but thinking
about what the Hive have been up to, I've mostly seen them
dismantling our ducts system. Could we be sure it's still there?"
he asked.
"I thought that, but isn't the ducting faster, so even if it's not
all there aren't we closer than taking this corridor route." He
questioned.
"Possibly. The other choice is this," said Trisees. He put his
gun down on the floor and delved deeply into his coat pocket, before
fishing out two small black ear shaped pieces of metal.
He threw one to Rufus, who caught it switfly and looked over it
carefully.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Transceiever communicator," answered Trisees. "We split up, both
try to make it to the cargo bays. That way there's more chance, and
perhaps I can distract them long enough for you to reach your goal.
If I don't make it the crew is counting on you."
Rufus was stunned into silence and held out the small black earpiece
at arms lengh, knowing that if he accepted it something not too
fantastic would happen. He stared at the man, not wanting him to
sacrifice himself for a group of people who didn't like him that
much.
"You... You can't do that." He paused searching for the words "I
mean, who'd teach me? And what if you..... you know. Didn't make it,
how am I suposed to save the crew on my own."
Trisees stood partially shocked, partially flattered. Here was a
boy who seemed to look up to him as a mentor of sorts.
"Rufus, I," he stopped, at a loss for words, which hadn't happened
in a very long time. "I know you feel scared and worried, and
unsure of your abilities. But trust me when I say this. You have a
quick mind, a fantasticly bright mind. You could save this ship a
hundred times. But you're right. Its better for us to stick
together. If you think the ducts are the best way to make it to the
cargo bays, we'll take the ducts."
"After you Sir, you know the way." Rufus said, staying behing him
and watching his back. If there was an ambush he'd make sure neither
of them was hurt.
Trisees nodded, took his communicator and pressed it firmly
against the side of his head, thick wires and plugs making their way
into his mind. When he noticed Rufus looking at it a little
horrified, he smiled.
"Don't worry, yours slips neatly into your ear like a headphone.
In case we get seperated, we might as well keep these on. Got to
plan for all eventuality," he explained. Rufus nodded and put the
ear piece on, Trisees having been correct with the ease which it
slipped into his ear.
They began walking along the corridors towards the small storage
cupboard, keeping their eyes out for any hive workers and watching
for deadly attacks.
It wasn't long before they reached the small cupboard. Trisees was
right, it was small. Rufus opened the door and was assulted by a mob
of angry mops. He yelled thinking it was a hive worker jumping on
him and fired his weapon. The mop didn't survive the attack, it lay
there smouldering quietly, a chared lump where the mop head used to
be.
Trisees looked at the remains and laughed.
"Maybe he'll think twice next time before attacking a scientist."
Rufus grinned sheepishly as Trisees holstered his gun and took hold
of the grating connecting the cupboard to the Blue Dwarf's duct
system.
"Looks like this is going to be a tight squeeze," he said. "I knew
I should have spent more time at the gym." Trisees winked and then
dropped down the grating, landing inside the duct.
Rufus rolled his eyes and shook his head behind the scientist.
"It could have been a hive worker you know." He dropped down into
the vent behind Trisees and closed the grate over. "I mean, sure, it
was only a mop, but it could quite easily have been a slavering
monster."